Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Well, as you can imagine, with all those projects lined up, since I left you last I was feeling a bit swamped and unsure as to whether I would actually get anything finished. Flitting from one project to another between little scraps of time as I have been extremely busy with household and garden chores in the last week before our "holiday" time finishes. I was pretty much doubting much would be achieved at all.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to whip this little project up in hardly any time at all. Always lovely to have a ta-dah between all the chaos, don't you think? So without further ado......

Ta-Dah -

HELLOOOOOOOO KITTY!

This is the first of my Pay It forward gifts to be completed and it was requested that a beanie be made for my niece Jazzy. I wanted something cute but quick as obviously I still have so many other gifts to make as well. I can't really share the yarn as I have no idea what it was other than at a guess 10ply Acrylic. (soft of course or I would never have touched it). The edging is wool though and left over from some long forgotten project in my scrap yarn box. Same goes for the eyes, nose and bow. All in 8ply.

I mostly followed the pattern, but I changed hooks after the increase rows to a larger hook as I was wary of the size. AND I made the ear flaps a couple of DC's smaller. I also used 12 strands of wool to make braids rather than the suggested chains. All in all, I was extremely happy with the results. So just a few small changes. LOL

If you would like to make one too.......here is the link to the lovely pattern.....

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Are you one of those people who tends to "bite off more than you can chew"? I certainly am and in my usual fashion this week, signed up for a few things I probably don't really have the time for. Why?

Well I have quite a few projects on the go that are not finished. I promised myself wholeheartedly that I WOULD FINISH THEM ALL before starting anything new. But you know how it is don't you. When one has a yarn addiction there is nothing quite like hooking or casting on yet another project.

So here is my list just for the immediate future.....

NOT FINISHED

* Trinity Lace Shrug (which is annoying me a bit right now so is sitting aside)

* Eucalyptus dreams Cardi (which I have not picked up for weeks because I keep casting on other smaller knits. Woops. I am onto the second sleeve though. Which is better than nothing).

* Awesome Hoodie (which was frogged so long ago, I almost forgot about it. While I was loving the wave pattern, the sleeves kept on coming out wrong and I got fed up. I really want to finish it though as its really cute! )

There are several other little projects that I am not going to bother showing as they have been waiting for so long I will just go with the thought "I probably won't have time anyway".

MUST DO'S (you know promised stuff to others)

* Several knitted baby hats (on order)

* Baby Cardigan in Moss Stitch (see right)

* Long Jumper for second daughter ( Pattern yet to be decided but must be done for July)

* Baby cardigan or jumper for my cousins baby

* Baby blanket for nephew (think this will be my next one a day project)

*Jumper and beanie for daughters puppy

*Jumper for my dog Miko

* Green beanie to match my scarf.

* 5 pay it forward gifts

I joined the pay it forward on facebook thinking it would be easy to come up with five little gifts in a hurry. Then someone asked if they could make a request and so silly me said SURE. So guess what, here are the requests.

* One cowl (she picked a really easy one but I think I will make something a little nicer)

* One dog jumper and beanie (yes daughters orders and then she wants a knitted Lace Collar for herself too. I think the one gift part did not reach her ears. LOL) Neither of these two offered patterns with their orders just Etsy pictures LOL

* One beanie for my niece (I am thinking of making a hello kitty one)

* The other two have kindly left it up to me. I have not decided as yet what to make for one of them, but think it will be something warm for winter.

As for the last one, her comment was "I will leave it up to you as I know how busy you are" And because she was such a sweetheart I decided to make her the African Flower Bag as I am taking part in this CAL on ravelry to make it and thought this would take care of two things at once. Here are the colours I am using...... I had to restrain myself from buying more supplies as I really need to use up all my stash. I am not really fond of the pink one but not sure if I have enough of the other colours to go on with so we will see.

This is the pattern I will be using for the baby blanket for "One a Day". I have loads of soft acrylic yarn that was given to me that I thought I would never use. I have a bit of an acrylic phobia, ick but hate to be wasteful.......I had to copy this from a blanket I bought at a fete really quickly as my daughter took the blanket home last week for her puppy. The main part will be pale blue and the inner parts in all different pastels etc.

Now of course this is the bare basic list. I have my eye on so many other projects its not funny and I probably would have ordered the yarn for them all, but we have a homeschool camp coming up and I need to pay for it so am behaving myself for now. My book list is also growing longer each day. I really love several Interweave books right now that I really must have. LOL

Now at the risk of overwhelming myself with far too many things to do. I am off to start the day! What are you planning to make this year?

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

I was just about to post about all the things I have managed to queue up (the delicious tangle of yarn and over taxing oneself with a huge TO DO list), when I thought. Nah, I will show them a little Ta-dah first. Far less stressful you know?

I may have mentioned my little project that has been accompanying me in the car, back and forth to the airport, to the beach etc. You know, one of those projects that requires no pattern, no patience and just a little bit of love and togetherness to get it done?

And in between reading the Traci Harding, Mystique series and trying to catch up with a gazillion other things, like overdue housework, gardening, planning homeschooling activities and trips and stuff for the term..... I actually managed to finish something. Wow.

I also managed to start a few other things, but lets just not go there right now. Okay?

I pretty much just made it up as I went and decided to stick with a simple repeat so that I would not really have to think much. I know lazy, but the effect turned out quite nice!

Here is the pattern I ended up with.....

I used a 5mm hook and Sean Sheep pure Australian wool (which is a quite rustic type of wool in the sense that it is spin quiet thin in some places and practically not at all in others. So you get a bit of a chunky look in places).

Start: Make 22 chain and turn.

Row 1: SC into 3rd ch, and to end.

Row 2: ch 3, DC in next and to end (Keeping a total of 20 across at all times)

Row 3: ch 2, SC across 19 stitches to end. ( I always use a ch 2 for a sc row start as it gives a neater stitch at the end).

Row 4: Ch3, DC in next st, (ch 1, skip next sc, DC in next sc) rpt to end.

Row 5: Same as row 3.

Rpt rows 2 - 5 to desired length ending with a row 3.

I went around the edges with a small wave pattern repeat of hdc, DC, hdc into one stitch, skip one, sc into next skip one and repeat. All the way round adding an extra sc into the corners. Twas quite the relaxing project indeed. Shame the rest of my list is not so simple! haha!

Friday, 13 January 2012

Just a quick post to let you all know the details for the squares I sent off as my contribution for the Beautiful Blogger Blanket.

I used Panda 8 ply Cotton in Purple. And the pattern is from The Family Crochet Book which was published in 1972 (second edition). I ended up choosing a pattern from this lovely vintage book, which I scored in an op-shop. Being a Motif that was actually intended for use in a cute little apron. I really liked it so decided to go with that one.

And these are the squares I sent.......

I am really looking forward to seeing the whole blanket when it is completed. I am sure its going to be amazing!

I have some other projects I would love to share, but not prepared with pictures at the moment. One of my projects is giving me grief. I might need to ask advice if I can't work out whats happening with it. For now I am about to cook the dinner and then do some reading.

Sunday, 8 January 2012

I have been in the midst of a bit of a hat making frenzy for the past week or so. After posting my Berry Cute hat on facebook, it was requested that I make some baby hats in gum nut colours. For those of you who are not familiar with gum nuts. They are the basically the seed/flower pods of gum trees. And they look a bit like this......

They actually start off green and then they sprout flowers in all shades of yellow, orange and red. Then when the flowers fall off and the seeds dry out they turn brown or grey and go very hard on the branch before falling. They are rather harsh on ones bare feet if you don't see them.

(Both photos, borrowed from here. Go check out the other lovely pics :-))

Author, May Gibbs wrote stories about little gum nut babies and as such, it is often an incentive in the land down under to create little gum nut looking hats among the yarn obsessed natives. Or at least among their non yarn obsessed friends and family who like to put in their orders for cute little baby things and even though they tend to mix up gum nuts and acorns (yes I take this very seriously people) I manage to come up with something to suit the individuals and have loads of FUN doing it!

So my friends, how does one make a gum nut baby hat with out a pattern? Well, it turns out I actually DO have a pattern but I am not at all fussed on the actual hat. After consulting google, I noted there is a May Gibbs knitting book floating about and I was all like....hey, I have that book somewhere (yes another little op-shop find that I am yet to actually use. Woops)......

I have to say though, that I was not terribly fussed on the hat. (Woops I said that already!) While it does look very much like a gumnut baby hat, the hat is designed for bigger children and was not quite what I had in mind. It is very cute though, and there are some other patterns in the book that I now have my eye on. Maybe I will make them soon. :-) I do know how to make a short story long don't I? haha

So as I said before, I wanted my hats to look like gum nuts...real gum nuts.....so I started with a just brown version of the Berry Cute hat and went from there......

Stocki, do you like my improv baby heads? hehe!

While it does look kind of like a gum nut, I was, in my usual fashion, umming and ahhing and wondering if I could come up with something better.

And being on a bit of a roll, so to speak, I decided to create a crochet version as well. And yes, I just made it up as I went along and I worked from the top down.....

I quite like the look of this one, but most of my friends so far have preferred the softer feel of the knitted version. I have orders for that one in green and brown. And I think I am going to have to make an acorn at some stage too. LOL

Meanwhile, in my travels this weekend, I played with some variegated wool and am thinking about whether to try felting it or not.....not sure yet as I quite like the stripy effect on this one. Not very gum nutty but cute all the same. I might add some tassels to the end. What do you think? Hmmmm

And of course, after all that, I remembered this little one that I made a couple of years ago. The flower version of the gum nut hat. I can see this one in authentic colours now, can you? I am going to have to make it for sure. (This is from the Patons book, Designer knits for tots).

I totally stole this picture from my ravelry page. Lazy much? And then I remembered that this little outfit had in fact been returned to me to keep for my daughter when little Miss Jazzy here grew out of it. She is nearly 5 and starting school this year! Yikes. So I took a quick picture just for you!

Not quite the same without the cute little head in it hey? Now I am away my friends. Its a beautiful sunny Sunday morning here and I am planning on spending it outdoors. Love and Light to you all.